[Engine-devel] webadmin (vs) rest-api & transition plan

[Itamar Heim]

On 02/06/2014 09:15 AM, Sven Kieske wrote:
> Hi devs,
>
> I want to talk about the current development style
> and the (somewhat) planned transition from webadmin
> today to a webadmin which uses REST for communication.
>
> I honestly don't see how this goal can be achieved, given
> the current development pattern, but I may be wrong.
>
> e.g. this bug:
>
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1061131
>
> it asks for a feature being available in GUI/webadmin.
>
> I'm pretty sure this gets implemented and adds another
> feature to the list which is not implemented via REST, thus
> leading to an even higher gap between REST and webadmin.
>
> Following this pattern will make the goal of using REST
> everywhere not easier to achieve.
>
> If you really want to build everything upon REST, or at least,
> transition everything to REST, there should be a policy that
> new features should be developed for REST access first.
>
> I don't know if such a policy is already in place and I
> know it will take some time for the transition, but what
> I observe leads me to the conclusion that the gap gets greater.
>
> What do you think?
>
> Are there any plans inside RH which I don't know regarding
> this transition? Maybe something you can share with your
> REST-Users?
>

1. most feature do get developed with both api and ui. that's the 
default "policy" today. when this doesn't happen its either due to time 
constraints (which will not be an option with the move of the gui), or 
when there is uncertainty about the modeling, due to concern feedback on 
the feature will require to change it.
2. moving the gui to be on top of the api will force everything to have 
the api.
3. once this happen, parts of the api may be defined as 'unstable', if 
there is a feeling they may still change if there is a feeling the 
feature may need to evolve a bit based on feedback.